Halifax is increasing the amount of time it takes to clear a cheque from four to six days in a move which will hit around 2m account holders from the end of this month.

The move means that anyone putting a cheque into their Halifax Cardcash or Easycash bank accounts will not be able to access their money for at least a week.

For example, if someone pays a cheque in on Monday July 26, when the new rules come into force, they will not be able to take the money out of the account until Tuesday August 3. Halifax says it has been forced into taking action after witnessing a leap in cheque fraud on the accounts, which are chiefly used as a basic banking facility for people on low incomes.

Halifax spokesman Shane O'Riordain says: "We have done this with great reluctance. Unfortunately we have seen a significant increase in fraud on this account and so very reluctantly have had to extend clearing times."

The new rules have angered customers. One Jobs & Money reader, Clare Govia from Berkshire, said: "I can't believe that the Halifax has extended the time in which cheques clear by two days. I'm not happy about it at all."

Halifax and Bank of Scotland - both part of the HBOS group - are by far the biggest operators of basic bank accounts, which have fewer facilities than standard accounts. Many have been opened over the past year as a result of government efforts to streamline benefits payments. Welfare recipients can no longer pick up cash using benefit books at post offices but must instead open a bank account into which the cash can be paid. Halifax says the extended clearing times will have no impact on direct payments of welfare benefits which, coming from the government, are cleared immediately.

Other banks which operate basic accounts have shorter clearing times. Co-op Bank clears cheques on all its bank accounts, including the basic account, in 3.5 days. Abbey has recently reduced the clearing time on its basic bank account from seven days to five. At Nationwide clearing times on the basic Flex bank account are five days.

Only a month ago the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, rebuked Britain's banks for their antiquated clearing times. He told senior bankers in his annual Mansion House speech that it was "disappointing that the UK now takes longer to clear payments than almost any other member of the G10 [group of industrialised nations]".

He told the audience to "explore ways in which that performance can be improved", including co-operating with the Office of Fair Trading taskforce which is currently looking into payment systems. Of 14 European countries, Britain is bottom of the league when it comes to processing consumer payments.

In Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Finland and the Netherlands, payments are cleared on the same day. In Sweden, the clearance process can take just a couple of hours, with payments made in the morning appearing in customers' bank accounts in the same afternoon.

Typically, Britain's banks take between three and five days for a cheque to clear into your account, even though it would be feasible for the banks to clear it in 24 hours. Even electronic payments, such as standing orders, are not cleared for two or three days. The money is debited from the customer's account on day one but not passed on for a further two days, during which time the bank can make a profit on the money.

The Consumers' Association estimates that banks earn around £30m a year from the practice.

But the Association of Payment and Clearing Services says faster clearing times will cost consumers money. It adds that it makes little sense to invest money in improving cheque clearing times when the usage of cheques is in rapid decline.